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Synecdoche, New York - Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Samantha Morton, Charlie Kaufman
Threat advisory: Low - Low risk of entertaining activities
Movie propaganda
Theatre director Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is mounting a new play. His life catering to suburban blue-hairs at the local regional theatre in Schenectady, New York is looking bleak. His wife Adele (Catherine Keener) has left him to pursue her painting in Berlin, taking their young daughter Olive (Sadie Goldstein) with her. His therapist, Madeleine Gravis (Hope Davis), is better at plugging her best-seller than she is at counselling him. A new relationship with the alluringly candid Hazel (Samantha Morton) has prematurely run aground. And a mysterious condition is systematically shutting down each of his autonomic functions, one by one.
Theatrical propaganda posters
Target demographic movie keyword propaganda
- Film drama theatre director play therapy separation affair illness
Persons of interest
- Philip Seymour Hoffman .... Caden Cotard
- Catherine Keener .... Adele Lack
- Sadie Goldstein .... Olive (4 years old)
- Tom Noonan .... Sammy Barnathan
- Josh Pais .... Dr Eisenberg
- Daniel London .... Tom
- Robert Seay .... David
- Michelle Williams .... Claire Keen
- Stephen Adly Guirgis .... Davis
- Samantha Morton .... Hazel
- Hope Davis .... Madeleine Gravis
- Jennifer Jason Leigh .... Maria
- Paul Sparks .... Derek
- Jerry Adler .... Caden's Father
- Lynn Cohen .... Caden's Mother
- Deirdre O'Connell .... Ellen's Mother
- Kat Peters .... Ellen (10 years old)
- Timothy Doyle .... Michael
- Robin Weigert .... Adult Olive
- Rosemary Murphy .... Frances
- Emily Watson .... Tammy
- William Ryall .... Jimmy
- Dianne Wiest .... Ellen Bascomb/Millicent Weems
- Joe Lisi .... Maurice
- Michael Medeiros .... Eric
- Charlie Kaufman .... Screenwriter
- Charlie Kaufman .... Director
Cinematic intelligence sources
- Synecdoche, New York official movie site
- Synecdoche, New York film production notes
- Synecdoche, New York QuickTime movie trailers
- Awards and film festivals:
- Cannes Film Festival 2008: Nominated: Golden Palm (Charlie Kaufman)
- Chicago Film Critics Association Awards 2008: Nominated: Best Screenplay, Original (Charlie Kaufman)
- Independent Spirit Awards 2009: Won: Robert Altman Award (Charlie Kaufman, Jeanne McCarthy, Hope Davis, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Catherine Keener, Samantha Morton, Tom Noonan, Emily Watson, Dianne Wiest, Michelle Williams); Nominated: Best First Feature (Charlie Kaufman, Anthony Bregman, Spike Jonze, Sidney Kimmel), Best Screenplay (Charlie Kaufman)
- Los Angeles Film Critics Association 2008: Won: Best Production Design (Mark Friedberg)
- NB: English and German language dialogue with English language subtitles
- See also Cold souls
- Studios and distributors:
Intelligence analyst
Special Agent Matti
Theatrical report
Firstly, synecdoche is one of those words that looks wrong and sounds worse, like "phlegmatic" or "syllogism". Look it up in a good dictionary to improve your vocabulary, appreciation of the film and cinema cred.
Secondly, the movie Synecdoche, New York is indulgent. Writer Charlie Kaufman was self indulgent when he wrote the script. Then director Charlie Kaufman was indulgent in letting the writer get away with it. Self-referential metatextuality will only get you so far. At some stage you're going to have to come up with a plot ("everyone gets old and dies" doesn't cut it). The saving grace is that it takes the piss out of thespianism.
The drama movie Synecdoche, New York is directed by Charlie Kaufman and stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Samantha Morton.
Government security censorship classification
M (Frequent sexual references, coarse language, nudity and themes)
Surveillance time
118 minutes (1:58 hours)
Not for public release in Australia before date
Film: 7 May 2009
DVD retail: 1 October 2009
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